Moving a Boat with a Lawn Tractor

I lightly touched on this in a couple of other threads but wanted get more advice/info. I have a small 16ft aluminum bass boat with a 25HP outboard. My goal was to attach a ball hitch to my Craftsman LT and move it around the driveway and around back to the yard.

Let's just say that didn't' work out . My problem was the weight, soon as I lowered the boat onto the hitch the front of the mower started going up up. I've done some googling and seen a couple of boating forums where folks are moving much bigger boats around with LT's and some even smaller than my LT and I keep scratching my head, how. I move my 6x10 trailer around with no problem and I've had that thing loaded with heavy rotted wood and brush at times, NP.

Weight of my LT is approx 500lbs give or take. Would adding wheel weights to the front help me out? I would be pulling the boat mostly on a flat surface but over grass to the back yard for storage when not in use which is maybe few times during the course of a year.

My ultimate goal is to have one machine that can do all that I want it to do which is move the boat when needed, mow the lawn, and haul decent load of firewood. I've gone back and forth with getting an ATV or upgrading to a legit garden tractor with more beef to it.

Do I need to upgrade to a Garden Tractor or can I work with what I have now by adding wheel weights!?! Thanks in advance fella's!

 

Boat trailer axle is way back to give tongue weight. Likely just too much for the tractor. If it lifts the front right up I'm not sure you'd be able to add enough wheel weights to compensate. Can you hang a weight from the front? Still gonna be a heavy load on a pretty light steer axle.

 

Could you put a couple cinderblocks in the boat behind the axle to lighten the toung weight?

It will be a pain to mess with the blocks but much cheaper than upgrading.

Disclaimer I have no idea if this would work but it’s what I would try.

 

I just saw Pete suggested the same thing

 

Invite a couple of friends for a boat trip, just have them sit as far back as possible. Another option is a tongue dolly and hitch up to the handle.

 

Any pics of your setup? Specifically what does the hitch on your LT look like?
If the ball is too far behind the rear axle of the LT, it wont take much weight to get the front end light...

 

Before adding weight to the back of the boat, I'd move any existing weight I could. Batteries? Gas tanks? Anchors? Move that stuff to the back.

 

I am surprised to hear you are having a problem. Could you move your boat farther back on the trailer to center more of the weight over the axel? I have a little Troy Bilt 17 hp pony that moves my 16’ tracker w 35 hp mercy with no problems at all. I didn’t even beef up the the plate, just threw a 2” atv ball on it and it has held up for a couple of years now with no signs of wear.

 

I was thinking the same thing Winston .

Now if it was a fiberglass boat with a 100+ hp then I would expect the result you had.

ReelFaster , what did I say about just buying an ATV?

 

Id move the boat back on the trailer till there was only a little tongue weight.

 

Thanks so much fella's! Seriously, some awesome advice!

Likewise! Browsing the net folks are doing it left and right with much smaller riding mowers.

This isn't my exact boat, something I found off the net but gives you an idea, very similar setup. That hitch setup is the identical hitch setup attached to my LT. Could the rise of the hitch be a problem?

Actually Horkn I did buy an ATV this past Monday, just haven't shared on FHC yet. 07 Honda Rancher 400AT. Long story short haven't had a chance to use it much but I love it! My first ATV, some getting use to. Initial thoughts are not sure it's the right fit for me or my needs. I need to give it more time and modify it to move some stuff around. It's got a hitch but it tucked way back close to the axle which makes it tough to use the wheel jack. Maybe I made a mistake and I could do what I want to do with my current LT or use that ATV $$ and get a beefy Garden Tractor to do all my needs. Again with all that said I really need to give the ATV more time, it just might fit in nicely, but the thought of maintaining one machine is nice as well. Pic of the ATV I snapped in the shed, not a great pic sorry!

 

Yes. Just as having the hitch further back puts more leverage on the tractor, so does having it higher...the closer the ball to the rear axle of the tractor, the more weight it can carry before lifting the front end. A small change in the distance can make a big difference too.
Do you have an old barbell/weight set laying around? (like most people do ) Probably wouldn't be hard to fab up a bracket to hang some of those weights off the front of the tractor...

 

I use my rancher to move my boat often

 

I just laughed looking at your pictures, I think we have the same boat and we definitely think alike. I did the opposite in one respect, I was going to buy that exact hitch but figured I would try without it first and see what happens. You could be onto something suspecting the hitch, while it raises the tongue which helps shift the weight back, it is also moving the ball further away from the tractor axle which could be making the leverage to lift the front of the tractor. The way mine is has a major downside, the ball is lower than the winch will go. If not that, I would take a good look at how the boat is sitting on the trailer, sounds like the bow stop or whatever it’s called is too far forward and all the weight is going to the tongue. Possibly set up for a longer boat than you have? You want some down weight but not so much that it’s putting all the weight on the main beam.

 

A larger engine would help counteract some of that tongue weight...just saying...

 

People up here have wheel house ice fishing houses that they tow onto the lakes earlier ice. They want to keep the weight down so they use an ATV to tow them and run into the same problem. Look at ATV weight distributing dolly, they cost a little bit but would solve your problem. If you're handy you could weld one up yourself.

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i was thinking about that also.
you can tow a camper on the highway with a similar product